Within a data center, overlay networks are often used for communication between virtual machines, servers, etc. that belong to the same logical network. To implement these overlays, MAC over IP tunnels are usually created between the forwarding elements (e.g., virtual switches, top of rack (TOR) switches, etc.) in the data center. When these forwarding elements each have a single network interface, they are each assigned a single tunnel endpoint IP address, and the encapsulation of packets between two forwarding elements uses the tunnel endpoint IP addresses of the two forwarding elements.
However, increasingly, the forwarding elements may have multiple such tunnel endpoint addresses (e.g., to leverage multiple physical interfaces or L2/L3 links) Thus, a controller managing these forwarding elements as well as the forwarding elements themselves should have a scheme for handling multiple tunnel endpoint addresses per forwarding element.